Kota Factory Season 3 review: A utopian tale of dreams, despair in the coaching capital

This season borrows from the previous two seasons in many ways. It retains its black-and-white template; episode titles picked up from an assembly line; aerial shots; cooped-up classrooms and test centres punctuated either by flipping of pages or tapping of shoes. But as much as this stagnancy — and an unusually long run to the actual exam — tells us about the state of life of so-called ‘aspirants’, it begins to bog down its impact.

How studies affect characters’ relationships

With a host of content spotlighting the tribulations of middle-class, small-town students blown up by parental aspirations and peer pressure, it is easy to fall into the traps of slick storytelling, taking a bird’s eye view to create a sensory experience for viewers but never diving further into the problem. Varun Grover’s All India Rank worked for me only for that reason. By sketching a dark portrait of middle-class existence — a father suspended after an inverted national flag on the cake; a mother being harassed by a pervert — it gives a peek into parents’ psyches for whom aspirations for their children are the only way to escape the drudgery and create an illusion of a better life.

Season 3 of Kota Factory takes a similar trajectory. It begins on a grim note. Jeetu bhaiya hasn’t shown up in days at his own coaching institute. He is seen smoking in his filthy room, crammed with newspaper rolls, half-eaten apples and cigarette stubs. He constantly stares at the moss-laden wall. The thought of his student’s suicide rattles him: where did I go wrong?

In another shot, we see Vaibhav’s (Mayur More) younger brother arriving in Kota. While Vaibhav thinks of it as a formality, his friends get excited after seeing his photo with Virat Kohli. He has even played in IPL trials and is awaiting selection. When Vartika Ratawal (Revathi Pillai), Vaibhav’s girlfriend, is asked whose poster she would hang in her room between the two brothers, Vaibhav begins to wonder if he would ever reach up to his brother’s stature, even after selection in an IIT.

Such thoughts of jealousy and competition are common in every student’s mind. It could have been an interesting turn, but creator Raghav Subbu and director Pratish Mehta, in a tearing rush, didn’t spend enough time to sharpen the conflict. The tension defuses too easily with a garden-variety solution. In fact, the entire season remains peppered with such easy-on-the-eyes solutions.

This is not to say that the series is devoid of moving and honest scenes. A subplot that I particularly liked was the effect of studies on the characters’ burgeoning relationships. Vaibhav is the more intelligent one of the two and never realises his casual condescension while studying with Vartika. She begins evading him. He is unable to wrap his head around her coldness. It gives us an insight into Vaibhav’s character, his macho-male ego fraught with confusion and a nagging self-doubt.

Similarly, Meena’s (Ranjan Raj) interiority is explored in deft strokes. He has run out of money but finds it hard to swallow his pride by asking friends for money. However, Uday’s (Alam Khan) and Shivangi’s (Ahsaas Channa) characters lack any development. What mostly irks me is that their friendship remains monolithic. Even when the stress of approaching exams leads to mounting stress, its effect never permeates their friendship.

The gap between fact and fiction

But then, that might not be the intention of the makers. The overarching theme of this five-episode series is Jeetu bhaiya’s struggle with himself. We realise that he is in therapy. A grey-haired Dr. Sudha Vyas (Sohaila Kapur) questions, why Jeetu bhaiya and not Jeetu sir? He treads this tightrope between a concerned bhaiya and a detached sir —always tipping to one side, embodying a state similar to his students, never really finding his point of equilibrium.

Like somebody with split personality disorder, there are two versions of him: one, the philanthropic, problem-solving Jeetu bhaiya, who doesn’t think once before giving money to a student to take a flight to save time (even if that’s just one currency note); and another, the disenchanted, grumpy teacher, unable to handle the weight of responsibility. He would be teaching in the class, and suddenly a student’s action or his own advice to them would remind him of the incident, and he would snap off. It is in this push-and-pull that the plot shines.

Pooja Madam (Tillotama Shome) is a new addition to the series. She is the chemistry teacher with a shawl wrapped around her shoulder. The series hints that she might become the next didi eventually, so she talks of chemistry as the love affair between sodium and hydrogen, and always doles out advice. Shome handles her character with poise, except that she doesn’t get enough screen time, falling victim to TVF’s habit of shoddily written female characters.

Kota Factory has been applauded for its realistic portrait since its launch. The gap widens between fact and fiction in the second season, which further increases in this one. Now it is hard to separate the two. Vaibhav has a breakdown because of closely placed boards and JEE exam, but boards disappear magically in the later episodes. Despite being neck-deep in debt, Jeetu bhaiya hands out money to the students carelessly. He doesn’t realise that each student comes with a specific skill set and calibre.He even repeats it multiple times, jab yeh waisa hi karte hain jaisa main kahta hun toh phir inki responsibility meri hui na? (When they do everything as advised, am I not responsible for them?) An invitation is given to him to join the exam conducting duty after his interview, which, of course, shouldn’t be considered odd given that the series was released during the election season. In its doggedness to give a nod to the establishment, the series forgets to dirty its hand in the gritty rreal-world issues. It feels like a suspended utopia for the most part.